New Orleans Coffee Liqueur

In early 2012, we started working with chicory and coffee – two classic bitter flavors that have been part of New Orleans’ iconic coffee blends for over a hundred years. In the late spring, we came up with a cocktail bitter recipe based on these flavors and brought a sample of them down to New Orleans to see if local bartenders thought we were doing their city proud. While we were tasting folks on the bitters, fate intervened.

On the first day of a multi-day tour through the bars of the city, we ended up at Mid-City’s Twelve Mile Limit where we started talking to the bartender about local roasters making great coffee in New Orleans. It ends up that the bartender, Anderson Stockdale, an award-winning barista, was just about to launch a coffes company. She put the idea into our head that we should consider making a New Orleans-style coffee liqueur.

As we were prototyping the liqueur, we were introduced to Marc de Kuyper, owner of Mandarine Napoleon (http://www NULL.mandarinenapoleon NULL.com/). As we were talking, he mentioned that his distillery was in Belgium, which reminded us that we had some Belgian candi syrup on hand back in our kitchens. We added some to the liqueur and realized that we had the start of something special.

Our New Orleans Coffee Liqueur blends New Orleans-sourced coffee beans from Brazil with organic roasted French chicory root. We then add a touch of vanilla and a handful of cacao nibs from Mast Brothers Chocolate, sweetening the final liqueur with a domestic Belgian-style candi syrup.

We thought that if we’re going to use New Orleans in the name, then we want to give something back to the city. So, for every bottle sold worldwide, we’re donating fifty cents to a New Orleans charity.

The Dude Abides

Pour each ingredient, in that order, into a rocks glass filled with ice. Give a quick stir. Or, if you want, give it a quick dry shake and pour into a rocks glass filled with ice. Dust with powdered espresso if you have it. Sit back and enjoy. The dude abides.

The Mid-City

Avery Glasser’s riff on the Vieux Carré, named for the neighborhood that inspired the New Orleans Coffee Liqueur